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From left, Miss Germany Saskia Motschall, Miss Kazakhstan Zhazira Seidakhmetova and Miss Colombia Luisa Betancourt, strut their stuff during the opening round of Miss Expo on Sept 6. The final is on Sept 20. |
Russia, which provides China with most of its foreign female models, is noticeably absent from the pageant, which still has something of a diamond-in-the-rough feel about it. The South Pacific island of Vanuatu and the Cook Islands, on the other hand, are in.
The rules of the competition are relaxed by beauty pageant standards. Spain is fielding a Colombian representative, Soraya Jaramillo. Chinese girls are standing in as the faces of Poland and Brazil, and Miss Ireland reportedly hails from New York.
All the women compete in heats, which continue nightly from Sept 10 to Sept 14. The seven winners advance to the final on Sept 20. Tickets are available to all Expo visitors at a cost of 50 yuan, including one free drink, or 100 yuan for the final.
Colombia's Betancourt won't be bringing her larger-than-life personality, or her colleagues with their conflicting agendas, but Zhazira Seidakhmetova will be at the final, having won over the four judges and audience members, who collectively form a fifth vote, on Sept 6.
Seidakhmetova's comely Kazakh charm trumped Colombian enterprise; risqu German cabaret; a waltz by Miss Czech Republic Irena Polenikova; a rendition of Madonna's La Isla Bonita by karaoke-loving Enjie Wang, Miss Inner Mongolia; and a popular song of peace by Miss Israel, Danielle Adler.
"The song I played (on guitar) is about how we're going to work together to make a new world full of love and take all the masks off and be real," said Adler, who drew attention to the current Israeli-Palestine peace talks with her Hebrew lyrics.
Seidakhmetova, the 21-year-old from the Kazakh capital of Astana, was sufficiently otherworldly to mesmerize her rivals. Wearing elaborate silver hand jewelry and a pointed blue hat with a feathered crest, she looked like a page torn out of an Eastern European history book.
"I loved Miss Kazakhstan. When she said that her country's national sport was like F1 with horses, she was so cute," said Saskia Motschall of Germany's Freiburg Case Pavilion.
Motschall performed her sultry curtain-raising act in black underwear and a white blouse, and managed several split-kicks despite pulling a leg muscle the day before. She started learning cabaret dance in May, when the Expo started.
Seidakhmetova, who speaks four languages, scored a triumph for virtue over virtuosity.
"We are blown away by the number of wonderfully talented and beautiful ladies that have entered," said event organizer Smith. "This is a competition based on personality, national pride and country awareness. Your chosen winner must have the ability to capture your imagination and transport you to her pavilion and her country."
Not that getting this message across is always easy. Smith had to remind guests repeatedly on Monday that beauty was not the chief asset of a Miss Expo. Meanwhile, most of the contestants are attractive, and first-finalist Miss Kazakhstan particularly so.
"We need to get more female judges," said Frank Taylor, the Vidal Sassoon-trained hairstylist for the event, remarking on the blinding effect of female beauty. "It's not supposed to be a beauty pageant, but we still have to make them look beautiful."
He said the pageant was a useful tool for attracting positive coverage of the Expo to combat all the negative reports of the large crowds, long lines and sweltering humidity.
According to some onlookers, the giving away of sponsors' prizes, not to mention all the free advertising for the Porterhouse Irish Bar that the pageant brings, undermines its claims to be a non-commercial activity.
However few people were complaining this week, except for a few voices disparaging the Q&A-style grilling of the women as being too drawn out, static and droll. The catcalls and wolf whistles were reserved for their respective singing and dancing performances.
Some of the contestants were taking the opportunity last week to listen to the announcer's questions and scribble down cheat notes ahead of their 15 minutes of fame.
"I picked up a few techniques, such as using the (LCD) screen and talking to the crowd," said Sinjiaporn Limaphan, who plans to perform a dance on Sept 10 infused with elements of muay Thai kickboxing, Thailand's defacto national sport.
Miss Peru Sofia Ballon pulled out all the stops by ordering a specially made denim gown with Peruvian embroidery from a well-known designer back home.
"I saw his collection in 2007 but all of his pieces were black, so I told him not to send me anything black, because the Chinese associate it with death," said Ballon, who will show guests how to make a pisco sour, Peru's national cocktail, on Sept 12.
"If I pass to the final, I'll be making ceviche (a Peruvian seafood dish)," she said.
"Most of the girls are hostesses, but I'm more of an administrator, so this contest has really been an eye-opening experience for me. It's a good way of formenting what the Expo is all about: promoting understanding of different cultures."
Hair designer and judge Taylor said he hopes at least one of the Chinese girls stays in the competition to keep the publicity machine rolling.
"We've only got a couple of Chinese girls and we hope they don't get kicked out early, because then we lose the (Chinese) TV coverage," he said. "The Expo needs all the good press it can get."
With this goal in mind, organizers are mulling hosting a Mr Expo and a month-long beer festival in October, although only the latter looks capable of getting airborne.
The Porterhouse is finalizing details on a beer festival with the pavilions of countries known for their love of hops: Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Malta and Lithuania.
"It's going to be like an Expo pub crawl, so you can drink your way around the world," said Smith.
"You'll be able to buy a passport at our pub, and with every drink you'll get a stamp on it bearing that beer's insignia." Collaborating pavilions will then let passport-bearers skip their queues.
"I know a lot of expats in Shanghai who keep promising they'll come to the Expo, but they still haven't," she said. "Evenings are always the best time to come, so this will pull them in, and they'll get to see the pavilions as they drink."
